Coast Guard ignored rape allegations cost young woman her life.

My niece was in the United States Coast Guard and was raped. She reported it and they told her that she was lying to get attention. They never did any official investigation even though many times she requested it. For over a year she had to work under the direct command of the man that raped her causing even further damage. Summer 2009 she was separated from service for reason of Personality Disorder, a condition that she does not have. She spent many months after getting out of the Coast Guard in a deep depression afraid to leave the house except to go out and buy booze to drink away her problems. In January 2010 she was found by her little sister. She had a fatal overdose on prescription drugs given to her by the Coast Guard that she held on. In her journal she wrote that she could not handle how she felt from being raped and the deep betrayal that she felt from the Coast Guard. She wrote of severe hazing on her ship, being raped, and the Coast Guard reaction to the rape.

I hold the United States Coast Guard 100% responsible for what happened to my niece and to the hundreds of other women that are raped. The Coast Guard still denies that my niece was ever raped and won’t take responsibility for her death.

Thank you for reading this. I sent this email to the Coast Guard Commandant and no response.

Editor note: The Commandant ignored her email like they ignored her niece’s rape allegations. Contact the Commandant yourself and say that this and all rapes in the Coast Guard are unacceptable and that the Coast Guard should do more to protect it service members.

Tina Priest, Lavena Johnson, Maria Lauterbach, Carri Goodwin, this woman and probably hundreds of others we are losing due to Military Sexual Trauma. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. WHEN IS THE MILITARY GOING TO GIVE A FUCK?

What a horribly tragic and avoidable situation. I am so very sorry for your loss. If only those responsible had actually stepped up and taken the appropriate measures, so many of our Shipmates/Marines/Airmen/Soldiers/Sailors would still be with us today. It is absolutely nauseating to see them deny responsibility, even in the face of these deaths, which are rightfully on their hands.

No amount of retribution can ever get us back those we’ve lost to MST, but my hope and dream is that our actions in speaking out and bringing the lawsuit will bring an end to this absolute inhuman travesty… now. Adding to what Michelle said, it’s time to FORCE them to give a f*ck…

I may not have known your niece, but stories such as hers definitely inspire me to take a more active role in advocacy and legal efforts. Thank you for sharing it.

I sent an email but what is that really going to do? It is obvious that the Commandant nor anyone in the Coast Guard truly put raped Coast Guardsman before the reputation of the Coast Guard. Read the introduction page of this blog where a woman had to go to the media to get somebody to listen because the CG were not doing their part to help her heal. Instead of seeing the article as an eye opener they instead were more concern about the Coast Guard reputation than fixing their wrongs that were clearly printed out for them. In this case it is basically the same problem, ignore the rape allegations because it won’t look good for the unit. Get rid of the victim instead of the perpetrator? I can tell you how this woman’s death is 100% the Coast Guard fault but I’ll wait till I get the response from an uneducated Coast Guardsman with just a high school or bachelor degree trying to tell me that they did all that they could.

I am a coast guard brat. My father who was a Chief at the time molested my sister who was 8 and myself who was 10. The Coast Guard did nothing to protect us even after he came to my maternal grandparents house with a Coast Guard-issued weapon. When I went to college he made another visit again with a gun to my college. Campus policed arrested him but was never charged by the Coast Guard. He left the Coast Guard after 30 years of service as a Master Chief. He had an Honorable Discharge and a pension. Last fall he passed away from a heart attack and finally I feel safe from him. The Coast Guard does not know how to protect people.